HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena, as catalogued
New Jersey's last operating zinc mine — 1,000+ feet of active tunnels where more than 77 workers died and paranormal investigators still hear footsteps underground
30 Plant Street, Ogdensburg, NJ 07439
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
General admission for mine tour typically $15–20 adults; reduced rates for children and seniors. Special events (Haunted Mine) priced separately — see website.
Access
Limited Access
Underground mine tunnels with low ceilings, uneven rock floors, and variable lighting. Not wheelchair accessible in the tunnels.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1730 · 77+ documented worker deaths during operating history · One of the last operating underground metal mines in the northeastern US (closed 1986) · Fluorescent mineral collection — one of the world's most significant · New Jersey Zinc Company / Horsehead Industries corporate history · Museum opened 1990; accredited by the American Alliance of Museums
The zinc ore body at Ogdensburg, Sussex County, was identified by European settlers in the early 18th century. Commercial extraction began in earnest in the 1830s under the Franklin Mineral Company and related enterprises. The deposit — a contact metamorphic zinc orebody associated with marble and gneiss — proved exceptionally rich. Sterling Hill, along with the nearby Franklin Mine, produced the majority of New Jersey's zinc output and made Sussex County a significant node in American metal mining through most of the 20th century.
The New Jersey Zinc Company acquired Sterling Hill in the early 20th century and operated it through several management configurations until it became Horsehead Industries in the 1960s. At its peak the mine employed several hundred workers and operated tunnels extending more than 1,000 feet below the surface. The work was hard and dangerous by any standard. Company safety records and contemporaneous newspaper accounts document more than 77 deaths from accidents — falls, equipment failures, and occasional tunnel collapses — over the mine's long operating life.
The mine closed in 1986 when declining zinc prices and increasing extraction costs made the operation uneconomical. A group led by former employees Richard and Robert Hauck purchased the surface plant and underground works in 1989. The Sterling Hill Mining Museum opened to the public in 1990 and has since become one of New Jersey's most distinctive small museums, known as much for its fluorescent mineral displays — the ore bodies produce spectacular responses under ultraviolet light — as for its industrial history.
The museum is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. The Thomas S. Warren Museum of Fluorescence, housed at the site, holds one of the world's most significant fluorescent mineral collections.
Sources
The legend of Bicycle Pete is the paranormal anchor of Sterling Hill. According to accounts compiled from paranormal investigators and museum staff, Pete was a miner who customarily rode a bicycle to work through the tunnel system. He died when he failed to stop at a shaft edge and fell. The story exists in several versions — the fall location, the era, and the victim's actual name all vary — but the core figure of a miner who died in a bicycle accident underground has been a consistent presence in investigation accounts for at least two decades.
Paranormal investigators who have accessed Sterling Hill's tunnels report EVP recordings in the lower levels and around the shaft areas, including apparent responses to direct questions. Accounts describe disembodied voices, temperature anomalies, and lights in sections of tunnel that have no operating electrical service. The museum has hosted formal paranormal investigation events, and clips from those sessions have circulated in New Jersey paranormal-enthusiast communities.
The museum runs an annual autumn event — marketed as the 'Sterling Hell Haunted Mine' — that combines theatrical scares with the mine's genuine industrial-death history. The event is separate from the standard historical tour and is aimed at adults looking for a haunted attraction experience rather than an investigation setting.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Guided tour through the mine's main adit and working-level tunnels, covering zinc extraction history, mineralogy, and the stories of the workers who operated the mine from the 1730s through 1986. Hard hats provided.
Surface exhibits covering mining equipment, local geology, and one of the world's largest collections of fluorescent minerals — the mine's zinc ore produces some of the most dramatic fluorescence responses of any deposit on earth.
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